Drugs

September 3, 2012

Marijuana (credit: Bryan Lewis Saunders)

“After experiencing drastic changes in my environment, I looked for other experiences that might profoundly affect my perception of the self. So I devised another experiment where everyday I took a different drug and drew myself under the influence.

“Within weeks I became lethargic and suffered mild brain damage. I am still conducting this experiment but over greater lapses of time. I only take drugs that are given to me.”

Based on 2 true stories, the video was created with over 3,000 self-portraits. At times 29 images per second flash on the screen. Faster than can be physically perceived. As in the story, I used them so actual pieces of my life would once again flash before my eyes almost burning them, but not in an animated cartoon like way. Because the story takes place in Hell, I mostly selected self-portraits with flames and devil horns and the ones representing pain and general anxiety. I also used some of the illustrated moments from the times when the events occurred as well as a few drawn from memory. I don’t use cocaine. It is an ironic statement at the end used to convey the power of addiction. — Bryan Lewis Saunders

Viewer warnng: explicit language

Video for the title track of the LP, “Near Death Experience” on the French label Erratum. Vocals by Bryan Lewis Saunders. Music by Spastic Dementia. (All guitar sounds were made with Marcelo Aguirre’s mouth).

Art is not craft. Anyone can take a picture. To make it art it has to have a meaning. The artist has to have something to say. That’s how come a fur lined tea cup is considered art. This guy has something to say so it’s art. I don’t want to watch but art is in the eyes of the beholder.

Beneath all the deliberate shock value of this video is a deeply traumatized person who is showing us in a very raw form things that have been festering inside him for a long time. The car accident with the dead people; his parents’ telling him not to look at it, but his seeing it anyway; these had a huge impact on him. Mr. Saunders is not alone. Lots of us struggle with things like this. His drug use and the resulting art spill all this out of him in a particularly graphic way. I hope he gets some help laying his personal demons to rest.

Agreed. The video and art seem to be a brilliant mechanism for powerful release of deep fears. Having studied and trained in bioenergetic analysis therapy (http://lowenfoundation.org/), his art and video seemed to me to be effective self-therapy. The same release can be achieved with bioenergetics without the drugs, but requires a trained therapist who can handle extremely intense emotional release (something conventional therapists tend not to be able to handle). But I can understand why many viewers would find the material disturbing or even triggering of repressed material, so I apologize for that.

I think that this is supposed to somehow be “art” … as in Salvador Dali or in a bizarre form of rap music or even (but hardly) literature (e.g., Dante’s Inferno). I did Google Bryan Lewis Saunders to find who this person is. Frankly, I do not understand why a story such as this even appears on KurweilAI.net.

I disagree. Drug use, if done right, gives depth, perspective and substance to intelligence. I am pretty sure our civilization owes a lot to drug use.
Of course, it might be one of those things that, if you don’t use it, you can’t appreciate it, which would explain your comment

Present day drugs are all lame, They do way to much damage to your brain and will make you go insane after a while as you can see on this gentlemen here ;)
The Drugs of the Future will get me much more excited coz they will eventually do no harm and coz no addictions, brain damage and stuff.
Imagine a world where everybody can simulate heroin etc safely xD
Not to mention the more advanced hallucigenic mind opening drugs that will hopefully arrive some years/decades from now.
Too bad that science isnt allowed to research presend day drug usage and the effects that it have on the brain.
Once the “limitless” drug is succesfully created, descision making isnt scourged anymore by fear,stress, etc. so we can handle the future with much more confidence ! Drugs are good for us but not these primitve forms we have today !

Wonder what drugs what conditions,..ect ect..What ? If you have no referance,this is almost ah’waste..of my time…intertanining?Maybe…Cautionary tail?..sure….Someone else,,taking the same drugs..And find one who will take cocain,,eye’ah was’kah…ect…dont take the drugs ‘they give you../// take the one’s you want..in the invirment you want….at least try to find,,yourself in heaven,,not give’in to hell…..

If this existence is actually a virtual reality experience, and if we are actually self-aware spiritual beings having a human experience, in which we are almost totally controlled by our beliefs, things may not be as bad as this indicates. As St. Paul wrote: God is Love.